Owners of Utrecht’s Grand Hotel, Chanalie and Corrie de Jonge, are distraught at being regarded as the ‘villains’ since their general manager was stabbed to death early last month.
They say that while they are heartbroken over the loss of trusted employee and good friend, Johan Harding, they are also upset that their attempt to reach out to Mr Harding’s family seems to have gone unacknowledged.
They have asked for an opportunity to correct misconceptions in the community about what happened the night that Mr Harding was murdered in order to deflect the rumours that are spreading in this regard.
“I heard one person say Johan had been stabbed 57 times and that we just left him there to die. That is obviously not true but this is how bad the rumours are getting,” explained Mr de Jonge.
Relating the events of that fateful night, he continued, “Late that night, two young men came into the public bar with their own liquor. The bar lady told them that we were already closed and asked them to leave. At the time, Johan was with me in the ladies’ bar, which is more private. When the men made their way to the ladies’ bar, Johan walked toward the gate, closed the gate and told the men we had already closed for the night. When I think about it, it looked like something was wrong, but now I’ll never know why.”
He continued, “I went to stand next to Johan and we ushered out the patrons who were still inside and wished them a good evening. The two men were standing outside and shouting at the patrons who were leaving. We could see they were looking for an argument. Johan was such a gentle guy. He put an arm around each of their shoulders, walked them away from the hotel and he spoke to them nicely, saying that they were welcome to come again tomorrow when the bar was opened. As Johan was walking with them, I got into my bakkie to leave. I saw that the situation was diffused and Johan was walking away from them back toward the hotel. He had to walk through the hotel to get to his house. Then I heard a scream and I made a U-turn in my bakkie and went back to see if Johan was hurt and saw that he had been stabbed. I helped him into the bakkie, my wife drove him to the hospital and I went after the guys but I couldn’t catch them.”
Mr de Jonge remained with Mr Harding at the hospital until 4.15 am. In that time he also gave a statement to the police.
“Johan was still conscious when I left and even made a joke about what had happened and was very apologetic, promising to be back at work the next day. I told him that it wasn’t his fault and he should take the time to get well again. I returned to the hospital at 6am when a family friend said he didn’t look well, and he died a short while later.”
Mr de Jonge described Mr Harding as his right-hand man.
“He was a good man. He wasn’t just an employee, he was a friend whom I trusted to keep my wife safe at the hotel while I was at work. I knew I could rely on him for anything.”
Mrs de Jonge said that she had offered to pay Mrs Harding her husband’s salary on a weekly basis for a month to help her on her feet, and contributed to the family in terms of food and financial assistance.
“I delivered the first week’s salary, and then became so upset after being portrayed as a villain in the newspaper, I did not go back. My lawyer informed me that we were not obligated to pay anything because the incident did not happen on my property, but we just wanted to help a little,” said Mrs de Jonge.
Addressing the issue of safety at the Grand Hotel, Mr and Mrs de Jonge explained that on a regular night there was one security guard on duty and the general manager assisted with security duties. On a busy night, there were two security guards.
“We are revamping the hotel and we would like to dedicate a memorial token to Johan in the hotel when we are done. He really did a lot for us,” concluded Mr de Jonge.
